South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday approved the appointment of Shin Hyun-song as governor of the Bank of Korea, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
Shin’s appointment will take effect Tuesday, when he is set to begin his term, succeeding outgoing Gov. Rhee Chang-yong, whose term ended Monday.
Earlier in the day, the National Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee approved a confirmation hearing report during its plenary session through a bipartisan agreement, five days after Shin’s hearing.
The process had been delayed amid opposition concerns over the alleged illegal reissuance of Shin’s daughter’s passport, leading to an unusual deadlock. The committee initially failed to adopt the report last week — the first such case since the confirmation hearing system for the BOK governor was introduced in 2014.
Born in 1959 in Daegu, Shin studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford and later earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from the same institution.
He has held several prominent international posts, including professor of economics at Princeton University and head of the Monetary and Economic Department at the Bank for International Settlements, where he served for 12 years.
Shin also worked as a resident scholar at the International Monetary Fund and as a member of the financial advisory committee at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He previously served as senior economic secretary to former president Lee Myung-bak.
lee.jungjoo@heraldcorp.com
